The present invention relates to a space-to-sales vend apparatus for a vending machine that stores soft drink bottles and cans and feeds the same to a release mechanism at the bottom of each apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a non-jamming storage rack which is compatible with various types of bottles and cans.
Serpentine product storage racks are generally known and have been used in various conventional vending machine designs. A typical serpentine storage rack is comprised of "S" shaped storage channels for storing and dispensing horizontally oriented cylindrical packages. These storage channels are normally located in a vending machine housing and guide the packages either by their ends or by the cylindrical portion of the package. The packages are loaded into the racks at the top whereupon they proceed to travel down a curved path to fill each channel. Such apparatus has certain advantages due to the fact that these types of vending machines can be designed to include low cost cast steel, wire or sheet metal racks and a low cost product release mechanism. Certain inherent disadvantages nevertheless exist with such designs inasmuch as they include inefficient storage space utilization, incompatibility with non-cylindrical cans, incompatibility with bottles and difficult blind loading. Moreover, such apparatus is subject to constant jamming and difficult servicing as a result thereof.
While the concept of a skewed vend channel suitable for vending stacked columns of bottles is broadly known, having been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,338,715, issued to L. O. Garner, such a structure has not been heretofore utilized in a serpentine type of channel of the type to be hereinafter described.